Tom Benson has a grip on all things sports in New Orleans after snatching up the Hornets

Big-money deals struck recently by the Saints and Hornets on consecutive days provide fresh evidence that Tom Benson is far and away the No. 1 sports power broker in south Louisiana.

Tom Benson

Nine days ago, Benson's NFL team agreed with quarterback Drew Brees on a $100 million, five-year contract, with $60 million guaranteed in the first three years. The next day, Benson's NBA team locked up guard Eric Gordon for four years by agreeing to match the Phoenix Suns' $58 million offer to him.

When Benson was owner only of the Saints, he topped The Times-Picayune's list of most powerful and influential sports people in the area.

Estimating the Saints' worth at $965 million, Forbes recently ranked the Saints 31st on its list of the most valuable sports teams in the world.

Having purchased the Hornets in a $338 million deal with the NBA a few months ago, Benson, 84, now controls both of the city's major-league sports franchises.

The Times-Picayune staff ranked 25 power players on their impact on a particular sport or the entire sports world. The list is subjective. There's more to it than just how much money people make or control. But clearly, Benson, who heads the list for the fourth consecutive year, has become an even more dominant figure in sports in this area.

Benson's critics might say he has too much power.

Is it healthy for New Orleans -- or any city, for that matter -- to have a sports owner of more than one big-league team?

"The short answer is, it depends a great deal on who the person is and the size of the market,'' said Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp, a Chicago-based sports consulting firm. "New Orleans has a double blessing -- a good owner who has put together an exceptional management team in a market where the number of people who have the resources to own two professional teams is quite limited. Seven years ago (after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans), you would have had a different answer.

"What has happened since then is a tremendous transformation of the city of New Orleans and the Benson sports organization. It happened at the same time. I don't think it's a coincidence. It's very symbiotic. They helped each other.''

Tulane law professor Gabe Feldman, an expert in sports labor issues and an analyst for the NFL Network, said: "My perspective is any perceived harm caused by a single owner is far outweighed by the benefits of cooperation. This is a case where cooperation benefits the city and the teams. From the Hornets' perspective, this adds what they didn't have since they got here, which is stability.''

'Alignment of interests'

Others have owned more than one major-league teams from the big-four sports (football, baseball, basketball and hockey) in the same city. In Detroit, Mike Illitch owns the baseball Tigers and hockey Red Wings. In Chicago, Jerry Reinsdorf owns the baseball White Sox and basketball Bulls. Several years ago, Wayne Huizenga owned the football Miami Dolphins, baseball Florida Marlins and hockey Florida Panthers simultaneously. There are other examples.

Detroit, Chicago and Miami are much bigger cities than New Orleans and have teams in every big-four sport. "Chicago is a Bears town,'' Ganis said. The White Sox aren't even the only big-league baseball team in Chicago.

Ganis, who helped facilitate negotiations between Benson and NBA Commissioner David Stern, said Benson is "much more visible'' than Illitch and Reinsdorf.

"Benson has been out front as a cheerleader for many years.''

Having Benson behind both big-league teams in New Orleans will help the city and state in several ways, said Doug Thornton, senior vice president of SMG, the company that manages the Superdome, the adjacent New Orleans Arena and other local sports properties.

"We'll be dealing with the same people on both sides of the street (between the Dome and Arena),'' Thornton said. "It's going to make life much easier for us. We both have a vested interest in promoting this sports district as a year-round destination. Now we have alignment of interests for all parties.''

All on the same page

Benson's ownership of the Hornets will help them in a business sense by providing "a proven leader, a proven organization, efficiency from economy of scale,'' Thornton said. "No other owner can do that.''

The Hornets will benefit from savings resulting from sharing personnel and overhead with the Saints, Thornton said. If Benson can operate the Hornets economically, he'll enhance resources for making the team more competitive.

Benson's ownership of both teams will also help the operation of the Superdome and Arena, Thornton said.

"It will help us resolve a lot of potential conflicts that would result with a third-party owner (of the Hornets),'' he said. Sponsorship conflicts and scheduling conflicts will be reduced, he said.

The Benson family, which owns Champions Square, has a vested interest in promoting it, Thornton said. The family's objective for Champions Square will be in line with objectives for the Hornets and Saints.

"A third-party Hornets owner might have made this more difficult,'' he said. "Now you have one ownership group promoting this as a sports destination.''

'Very different product'

Bill Sutton, a former consultant to the NBA and now professor and director of the University of South Florida Sport and Entertainment Management program, said that whether Benson succeeds in a business sense with the Hornets "depends on how Tom attacks the job."

"There's a lot of difference in selling an NFL game and selling an NBA game,'' Sutton said. "The NFL is one game a week on Sunday. The NBA is different days of the week, different starting times. It's a very, very different product.''

To sell Hornets tickets, Benson can start by looking to the 70,000 people who pack the Superdome for Saints games, Sutton said.

Also, when seeking companies as sponsors for the teams, Benson "can sell yearlong marking platforms for the clients for both teams,'' Sutton said.

A possible negative aspect of joint ownership of the Saints and Hornets is that there will be little down time during the year for staff and employees, Sutton said.

"If you have the same people doing the job, it can wear people out,'' he said. "They need time to plan, to execute.''

Winning is possible for teams with common ownership.

"Jerry Reinsdorf has done a great job,'' Sutton said. "He's won championships with both teams. That's something that New Orleans can hang its hat on. It's working.''

Louisiana backs ownership

The state is happy to have the Saints and Hornets under Benson's leadership, and to have both teams committed to stay in New Orleans under long-term leases, said Ron Forman, chairman of the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, the state agency that maintains the Dome, Arena and other sports venues.

"Four or five years ago, incentives for the Saints were growing out of line,'' Forman said. "The fact that his team worked with us over time and negotiated hard was a major effort on everybody's part. The same thing with the Hornets.''

The Hornets lease in the Arena runs through 2024. As part of the state's agreement with the team, the state is committed to financing nearly $60 million in capital improvements to the Arena.

Similarly, under the state's lease with Saints, which runs through 2025, the Superdome received $85 million in capital improvements.

"The fact that we had the Saints performing at such a good level economically gave Tom the opportunity to say, 'Let me take that success and carry it over to the Hornets.' Without the Saints and Tom doing what they did, we could have lost the Hornets. ... . Producing a quality product, a winning team that can provide Super Bowls, All-Star games, that was a big factor in the negotiations.

"What the state would offer an owner, and what Benson could give the NBA, had to work. The state was looking for a business plan they could sell to the legislators. The biggest factor to the legislators was, 'Show me a plan that gets the state out of the inducement business. We didn't want to write checks. The deal with the state moved from inducements to capital improvements.''

Firmer roots for both teams

Any sports team can threaten to move, but with the long-term leases for the Saints and Hornets in place and Benson in charge, New Orleans fans can rest much more easily, Feldman said. "The Benson family is so anchored in the city, it becomes that much more difficult for either franchise to leave,'' he said.

After Katrina, fans were worried that the Saints might leave for San Antonio, and the Hornets, who played two seasons in Oklahoma City, had to prove to the NBA that they could be viable in New Orleans. Both teams are on much firmer footing now.

Benson, who according to Forbes was worth $1.1 billion in March, not long before he became the Hornets' owner, seems to have a knack for making timely business moves. In his first draft with the Hornets, the team won the lottery and landed the No. 1 overall pick, Anthony Davis.

"Never ignore one important thing -- luck,'' Ganis said. "It's not a bad thing to be sitting there when the ping-pong balls are floating around.''

Said Sutton: "Benson taking this team over, winning the lottery, signing a lot of free agents -- there's going to be a lot of excitement, maybe more than when the team first got there, higher expectations for Hornets fans. ... He's in a perfect position to launch a whole new generation of Hornets fans.''

The area's top sports power broker appears to be at the height of his powers.

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Bob Fortus can be reached at rfortus@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3408.